By IANS,
Jakarta: Indonesia is considering import of 500,000 tonnes of rice from India, an official said Friday.
Deddy Saleh, foreign trade director general at the trade ministry here, said India has offered to export 500,000 tonnes to Indonesia amid the government’s search for rice imports following floods that halted rice export from Thailand.
“India has offered 500,000 tonnes of rice… They demanded it to be conducted on business-to-business (B2B) scheme. So we would support the Bulog to comply with the scheme they asked for,” Deddy said, referring to the country’s logistic agency dealing with food distribution and price.
He said Indonesia is also seeking rice imports from Cambodia and Pakistan to meet its rice import allocation this year. Indonesia would weigh importing rice from exporters who provide the best price, reported Xinhua.
Indonesia initially planned to import 1.6 million tonnes of rice this year that would have come from Vietnam and Thailand.
Indonesia had to abort rice import from Thailand — initially set at 300,000 tonnes — due to the flooding in that country.